Over a Thousand Rally to Keep Rights for State Troopers, Teachers & Fire Fighters| (From Rep. Sharon Steckman)
Over a Thousand Rally to Keep Rights for State Troopers, Teachers & Fire Fighters
Over a thousand Iowans rallied at the State Capitol on Tuesday to support rights for police officers, fire fighters, state troopers, teachers, nurses, and other workers. Later in the day, a House subcommittee took public comment on a bill that would take away rights from hard-working Iowans.
Opponents of the bill say the Legislature’s top priority this year should be creating new jobs and opportunities for working families in Iowa while the bill under consideration by the majority party is bad for middle class families.
Iowa’s collective bargaining law has worked well for 30 years and was enacted by a Republican Governor. Despite c laims the bill is needed because the state has no money, the state has a $900 million surplus and the majority party has already spent over $1 billion in tax breaks.
Public Workers Make Less Than Private Counterparts
Another report out this week also ends the myth that state workers make more than workers in the private sector. A non-partisan study by the Iowa Policy Project examined the pay and benefits for similar work in the public sector vs. the private sector and found that men in the public sector make 6 percent less than their counterparts in the private sector and women in the public sector earn 8 percent less than the private sector.
